From The April/May 2003 Issue of Natural Grocery Buyer

Paper Work

Not all recycled tissues and towels are created equal

Dan Luzadder

Understanding labels that tout the environmental friendliness of recycled household paper products—such as toilet paper, facial tissues and paper towels—is like trying to read Egyptian hieroglyphs without the Rosetta stone.

While most consumers believe that recycled tissues and towels are good for the environment, even knowledgeable eco-consumers may not be able to explain why.

Industry experts say not all recycled household paper products are created equally—and knowing the difference means understanding where the recycled materials come from and how they are processed.

There are several important definitions that apply to recycled paper, according to Treecycle Inc., a Montana-based company that specializes in recycled paper products. Here are a few:

• PCW, or Post-Consumer Waste, is waste paper that is collected from recycle bins—newspapers, office paper and other printed paper—and used to create recycled toilet paper, tissues and towels. Most recycled household paper labels list a PCW percentage; as a rule of thumb, 25 percent isn't significant; 100 percent is the most environmentally desirable.
  
  
• TCF, or Totally Chlorine Free, means that tissue has been bleached by some means other than with chlorine, which is a major source of water pollution in the United States.
  
  
• PCF, or Processed Chlorine Free, means that some fiber products used in creation of recycled household paper have been bleached in chlorine-related products, but not directly in chlorine.
  
  
• ECF, or Elemental Chlorine Free, indicates that chlorine products with less toxicity have been used to bleach paper.
  
  
• PMM, or Post-Mill Material, indicates waste paper generated in paper converting and printing that is done by a facility other than a paper mill. It does not include mill waste or wood chips.
  
  
• DIP, or De-Inked Paper, is waste paper with coatings, filler, ink and other additives removed as a step in the production of recycled paper. Newspapers printed but not sold are often in this category.

If all this sounds a little like the confusing terminology that once surrounded "organic" food products before government standards were enacted, it probably is. Environmentalists say recycled tissue and towel product-labeling claims are often all over the map.

Environmental issues have driven many consumers to search for household paper that has a lower environmental impact. And for good reason.

Industry experts acknowledge, and environmental groups note, that the nation uses 200 billion pounds of paper annually. The vast majority is created from virgin wood pulp. New paper uses more than twice the water needed to produce recycled paper products, and pulp mills are a major source of water pollution, particularly where chlorine is used as a bleaching agent.

Peter Marcalus, vice president of Marcal Paper Mills Inc. in Elmwood Park, N.J.—a longtime producer of recycled household tissue products—says environmental concerns have boosted the number of recycled paper marketers, but these newcomers have also brought volatility to the industry.

His family's company was started in the 1930s by his grandfather, Nicholas Marcalus, who was one of the first to recognize the potential for using recycled waste paper to produce household tissues and towels.

"His vision was to tap into what we call the 'urban forest' of waste paper, which extends up and down the Eastern seaboard, from Boston to New York, to Philadelphia, to Washington, D.C.," Marcalus says. "This area generates a tremendous amount of waste paper."

Marcal—the eighth-largest maker of household paper and the largest producer of recycled paper products—has been at this for more than 50 years. It makes some 187,000 tons of recycled paper products annually.

Seventh Generation, the Burlington, Vt., maker of recycled household paper products, estimates that if every U.S. household replaced a single four-pack of 400-count virgin fiber bathroom tissue with a pack of recycled TP, the resulting savings would be about 1.45 million trees, 3.7 million cubic feet of landfill space, and 523 million gallons of water. "A primary reason that people choose recycled paper products is because of the environmental benefits," Seventh Generation spokeswoman Karen Martinsen Fleming says. "Purchasing recycled products 'closes the loop' and diverts paper from the landfill to another use."

Fleming also says there are health benefits to choosing recycled products, especially those that are TCF. "Processing with clorine bleach creates dangerous by-products, including dioxin, that are released into the wastewater and into our environment. Once in the environment, they accumulate in the food chain and, eventually, in our body tissues," she says.

This type of environmental awareness, along with Environmental Protection Agency encouragement, generated dozens of competitors in the recycled paper market beginning in 1990. But riding a wave of environmental awareness brought more volatility to the overall market than success to the newcomers—particularly among companies that were "liberal," Marcalus says, with their idealistic claims of post-consumer waste content.

"Most of those 'environmental brands' failed," he says, "because they couldn't keep up the quality of the product they were advertising, and they didn't take a long-term view."

Still, over the past decade the amount of recycled household paper products has increased with consumer demand. Natural products retailers have provided a major outlet for those goods, and direct Internet sales also have stimulated production. Price points have helped recycled paper makers win new customers.

Marcalus says his company's recycled tissues and towels are often priced below the brands that are produced from virgin pulp, and, he says, they sell well in major grocery outlets, like Piggly Wiggly, as a result.

But there remain questions over how quickly the market will grow.

"For recycled content products, I think there is always going to be a very loyal niche of consumers that will buy recycled content as their first choice," Marcalus says. "These are consumers who want to make sure, by their purchasing power, that they are reducing the impact on Earth.

"I think more and more the general public would be open to doing the right thing, in terms of environmentally sound shopping decisions, but only as long as the products meet their requirements for quality and for price," he says.

Sidebars:
How The Recycled Household Paper Market Stacks Up

Dan Luzadder is a freelance reporter in Evergreen, Colo.